Donomark

I agree a lot with what Ian said, specifically concerning at what point the show got good, Clara and Jenna Coleman's performance, the direction of the episode and the anti-Moffatt era we're currently in. I will say that I actively don't like the new theme. It's kind of wimpy and lacks that dramatic touch I feel the others have had.

All of those titles sound pretty kickass

"Nice job Ian!" I'm with you on First Class. It's a fun movie but nowhere near the franchise's heights, and I'm confused as to why aside from McAvoy and Fassbender. I might switch their placements in your ranking, although I agree with all the others. I find X-Men (1) to be fairly underrated and enjoy it as much as X-2.

I'd like to help.

Unbelievable...RIP

I can't stop watching that animated video. I like how Clara's wearing a sweater with a "?" on it, as both a symbol of the companion and a reminder of the JNT days where all the doctors wore that on their clothes. I gotta be honest guys, I'm very unsure about an older Doctor taking the reins in this modern age. Having gotten into the show in the modern era, I'm sure my trepidations are largely unfounded, but since Capaldi is the oldest actor cast I'm concerned how long he can keep at the job. I'm also wondering if an older Doctor can connect with modern viewers who are used to their Doctors embodying an old man in a young man's body. Not saying this is doomed to fail, but I am a bit anxious over it.

That was a great panel, and a great show to listen to. Thanks Kellen!

Finally watched this film on Netflix for the sake of the show! Thanks guys!

Went in with moderate expectations as I'm not a Marvel cosmic guy, and really enjoyed it! Above all else, I'd love to see a sequel with these characters, so Marvel definitely pulled off what needed to be pulled off. You're not wondering "Where's Iron Man?" or anything. If you're a newbie, it's virtually entirely separate from everything Marvel's shown up til now, so it stands on its own very well.

She's gonna be in the upcoming TMNT film!

Interesting that they went back to the Avengers hair style for Natasha. I kinda liked her Cap 2 doo the best.

Happy Belated birthday!

Here's hoping the new intro keeps the face in the credits.

Seems like ever since DB Kai (or even earlier with "Son Goku and his friends Return!") Dragon Ball has had a major resurgence in popularity due to more produced content, and more produced content due to a major resurgence in popularity. Because AT himself is involved, I'm down.

Tomorrow's the day! I've been wracking my brain by reading several essays for and against TKJ in hopes of bringing the potential for great discussion to the full. Again if anybody wants to call in, Stella's Skype info is batgirltooracle and mine is donomark1. If you'd like to write in, you can do so at batgirltooracle@gmail.com.

Excited because Simone's off the title and the direction looks to mark a change in DC's line of Depressing Comics. Batgirl was one of the most incessantly miserable books out there, and it was really crap. This look to be fun and buck the trend of the last 3 years.

Oh yeah, Joe Bennett worked on both Spider-Man in the late 90s/early 2000s during the reboot era, as well as the woeful Nightwing Annual #2 in the mid-00s.

This needed to be seen to be believed.

For days I thought that was a photoshopped joke... DC: ZERO SELF AWARENESS WHATSOEVER

You're right, my assertions on what Snyder had attempted to do with the movie were inferences I made and nothing more. I do totally get how that doesn't help anyone. In terms of lightening things up, I would've definitely punched up more of Lois' scenes and given them more personality to bring humor out of. Her scenes with the military folks, and especially Perry. Lois really is that brash, cocky, "leap into things head first" kind of character where you can derive humor for it. I also would've contrasted the tough time Clark had at school with scenes of him being genuinely happy living with Jonathan and Martha. Something like that which showed at the end of the day he knows once he gets back to them, things will be okay (until he's 17 I guess). I got the sense that they were trying to keep things as un-watered down as they could, but even still like I said before, more instances of an emotional range I think could've easily been done. I suppose at the end of the day the opinions on Man of Steel come down to how much leeway people were willing to give this new set of films and how much they enjoyed that new take....obviously. Superman is a lot more of a traditional character, more of a character for all ages so if nothing else the response to the movie really showed me how much people still care about him, despite worries to the contrary. A lot of the people who hated this movie (and this did lead to one of the biggest, bloodiest geek civil wars I have EVER seen in my life) really seemed to come at it with the sense that the character was done so wrongly, which shows me how much he's still beloved.

"Roger Mortis". Dear GOD, that killed me! After listening to the episode guys, I'd like to say this. While my feelings towards Man of Steel are closer towards your own, I feel it's a bit short-sighted to characterize the majority of the criticism on people who just wanted a Chris Reeve film. While there's certainly more than a fair share of those that did, I think generally speaking there was more wrong with the movie in terms of what people went into it than just a failure to live up to expectations based on assumptions based on nostalgia. The 55% on Rotten Tomatoes doesn't exactly register it as "Not like the Reeve films". I think a large problem with the film is tone. Whilst it can be looked at as a reboot and re-imagining of sorts, the movie itself is almost completely humorless. The Krypton stuff is deservedly epic, but once things move to Earth there's still a sense of melancholy and displacement that kind of hangs itself over the film in a way that doesn't gel with the character. Comparing it to Batman Begins, Bruce has an idea of what he wants to do. He needs to work towards getting there. Clark wants to know where he comes from and how that determines his place in the world, and that's an absolutely valid bit of characterization. The presentation however makes things a bit more solemn and brooding in a way that feels inappropriate. Comparing Man of Steel to Batman Begins entirely, I'd say that Batman Begins was successful in that you come away from it feeling like it was 150% a Batman film. It had the aesthetics, the mood, the drama and the psychological underpinnings which felt "Batmany". How is Superman to be characterized in a new series of films? I think if you look back on what's worked and what hasn't, the filmmakers went with a more epic story, but as a result it came off as taking itself too seriously. When Batman shows up in Begins, you know he's gonna kick some ass and takeover the situation in a Batman-like manner, and even if/when he doesn't, it'll be a new and natural challenge for him to overcome. I think Man of Steel's script has it to where Clark is led around by the nose too often, where he's so unsure of what's going on that the majority of Cavill's dialogue has him just reacting to certain things. Again to compare, Begins first sees Jesus Bale responding to a guy's threat by saying "You're practice". With an idea of who Batman is or will be, we see right away that Bruce is already mostly sure of what he wants. It characterizes him in accordance with an iconic view of the character of Batman yet presents it through a new situation (by having him in jail). We first see Clark save a ship which is totally "Supermany", yet when things slow down we see him drift about looking sullen and despondent. We know why he is and it makes sense, but it doesn't mesh with what we know or think/feel Superman as a character should be. He's so seemingly directionless that he never smiles. He keeps to himself and rarely meets people's gaze. It's a new take and one that makes sense within the confines of its universe and the confines of where Clark is in his life, but it doesn't feel like Superman, whereas at the start of Begins, despite Bruce first appearing in prison, it still felt like Batman (IMO). And I think the opening Earth scene illustrates the overall tone of how the movie will be throughout. There's very little of an emotional range displayed by Clark or the characters throughout the movie. When Superman learns to fly and is gleeful for it, it's pretty much the only time we see him happy in the film. He smirks and is content in other scenes, but the range of emotions are far and few between. The feeling you get by the end is that this is a dark, violent, serious movie where serious things are happening and don't allow for any other types of expressions of emotion. Batman Begins is a dark film, but 1) Batman by nature is a dark character which makes the tone more appropriate than MoS, and 2) there's more variations of emotions displayed by the characters all through the film that you don't get bogged down by how dark it is. Pretty much everyone in the movie is happy, sad, angry, scared or determined at some point. In Man of Steel, does Lois smile once? The Dark Knight and DK Rises are even darker films, but I'd still say that the ranges of emotion are more varied than those in Man of Steel's. I'm not a film critic, and there are plenty of those who've dissected Man of Steel through videos easily found online. But when I hear the complaints people had with the movie, while they didn't affect me as much I do understand them. Superman's absolutely a character than can be taken in different directions (although less so than in Batman I feel), but at the end of the day I think whatever he's in needs to still feel like Superman. The Animated series didn't resemble the Reeve films, yet felt like Superman. Smallville (which got better in the final three seasons) stuck the landing at the end of the series and felt like Superman. Lois and Clark from what I remember (s'been a while) felt like Superman. Man of Steel from what I read was approached with a sci-fi film in mind, and while the characters' origins are science fiction in nature, that's not what the character is about. Why is Superman important in his world? What should we take away from Superman? I think the film was certainly earnest in what it was trying to do, but it also felt to me like they kind of balked at what they thought might scare away people with modern sensibilities if they approached Superman with a lighter touch than they did. They tried to make the character feel epic and important, but it kind of came off as them being stuck up their own ass and really wanting the Nolan approach to Batman to work for Superman. The two characters are not the same, so what works for one doesn't necessarily work for the other. I think that's what went wrong with the film, and I think it makes the concerns for "In the Case of Batman v. Superman" are honest and justified.

DAMN, looking forward to hearing this!

A very close friend of mine named Stella runs a podcast called Batgirl to Oracle: A Barbara Gordon Podcast, in which she goes over ever Babs Gordon appearance from the Silver Age as well as simultaneously reviewing the current title (she started in '09 with Steph Brown's book). On Saturday July 12th at 2pm est, she'll be covering The Killing Joke, a comic she's avoided reading and has dreaded doing so. She's also hosting a call-in show to get others opinions on this iconic story and help keep a discussion going. With this being Self-Promotion, I will co-hosting the special with her throughout the show, but regardless I'd encourage anyone who has thoughts on the Killing Joke and how it changed Babs Gordon to call in! Her Skype contact is batgirltooracle, and mine is donomark1. If you cannot make it, you can write in to batgirltooracle@gmail.com and your comments will be read on air. Feel free to chime in!

Hitch is a really good movie, and closer to his modern incarnation as a charming lead who can do no wrong.

I think THE NAKED TIME might be my favorite TOS episode I've seen, as I love the cresendo to the end. Kirk's cool and collected until the last few minutes where he loses it. The scene with Spock and Chapel I found compelling because it's the first time Spock's explicitly been shown to be so conflicted. I tend to rewatch these scenes again and again (barring the slash commentary).